BT Health man honoured

BT Health’s Director of Global Healthcare Strategy & Planning, Dr Justin Whatling, has been awarded the prestigious title of Visiting Professor at University College London (UCL). Professor Malcolm Grant, Provost and President of UCL, conferred this appointment within UCL’s Centre for Health Informatics and Multiprofessional Education (CHIME) earlier this year.

Justin is working on the development of BT’s global healthcare strategy and is responsible for strategic partnership management. A physician by background, he trained in medicine in London and also has a degree in molecular biology. He has worked at a number of teaching centres and was previously a hospital physician in the field of neurology. Since then, Justin has built eight years experience of health IT, health outcomes and health informatics in the business sector.

“I am very honoured to receive the appointment,” said Justin, whose expertise, track record make him an ideal ambassador for BT in the health sector. “With BT's high profile, and very successful delivery of major NHS ICT service contracts, the synergies with CHIME expertise are obvious.”

Established in 1995 as a joint initiative of UCL and the Whittington Hospital NHS Trust, CHIME undertakes research and provides undergraduate and postgraduate education to support clinical practice and to benefit local communities - both patients and healthcare professionals.

CHIME’s research programme includes clinical information management, telemedicine and decision support, clinical bioinformatics, education, training and professional development in health informatics - all of which are very relevant to BT Health.

Justin’s appointment will help leverage the strong contribution that both UCL and BT have to offer in health informatics and related eHealth technologies. "This offers a natural extension of the long standing strategic relationship between UCL and BT - spanning the Centre at Adastral Park, Electrical Engineering, and Computing Sciences, but also giving access to the breadth of expertise across all departments of the university."